I could barely tear myself away from this book!
It’s a fascinating revelation of the author’s tortuous childhood and the unsettling discovery about who her father really was.
He was a real SOB, conman, liar, and just reprehensible.
What floored me was his tell all book and how he profited from his criminal activities.
Balascio is a very strung person and I admired her tenacity as she pulled herself out of her family entanglements.
Some parts of this story were absolutely ghastly and I give kudos to the author for trying to solve all the possible murders her father committed.

When April Balascio chose to share her story with the world, she chose to relive her life with all of the darkness that most would choose to forget. The abuse her father heaped on the family was hard but at the moment she realized that the horror he had inflicted on them went to a much deeper level. I get goosebumps thinking of how she must of felt knowing that the lengths he subjected them to was not just to hide his abuse of the family, but to cover up so much more. The courage it took for her to point law enforcement to her father's actions could only be described as heroic. She stopped a killer.
As a true crime/ biography, Balascio has given readers a look into her life. It's horrifing.

Even as a reader who has consumed a fair bit of true crime, this book is harrowing. It's shocking that April Balascio made it through her childhood, and I'm genuinely surprised that more people have not been talking about her father and his absolutely horrific string of crimes. This is a hard read, but well done.

This is a book that will stay with me long after reading it. April Balascio’s memoir is nothing short of extraordinary. I originally picked it up because I love true crime, but what I found was so much more. It’s April’s deeply personal story of survival and resilience that truly captivated me.

The way April describes growing up under the shadow of her father, Edward Wayne Edwards, is both heartbreaking and terrifying. She pulls you into her world—of manipulation, fear, and an almost unimaginable betrayal. You can feel her inner conflict as she starts to piece together the unsettling truth about who her father really was. I was gripped by her journey, not just because of the dark truths she uncovers, but because of her strength in facing them head-on.

It’s impossible to fully understand the emotional toll that growing up with a serial killer as a father must have taken, but April’s raw honesty makes it feel real. The book was at times hard to read because of how intense her experiences were, but it was impossible to look away. April’s courage in telling her story is truly inspiring.

This memoir is so much more than just a true crime account—it’s about a daughter finding the strength to confront her past and reclaim her own life. If you love true crime, or even if you’re just looking for a deeply moving and powerful memoir, this is a must-read. I can’t recommend it enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

As someone who was not familiar with the case mentioned in this book, or much true crime in general, I found this book intriguing. I think that getting both the crime aspect as well as the family dynamic propelled this book forward and gives such unique prospective to killers and their crimes. I would definitely read and be on the look out for more types of books like this, even as horrible as the things the author went through to write something like this.
I hope that the Author and families involved were able to gain some peace throughout the books writing process.
I was so kindly given an advanced readers copy for an honest review.

Best memoir I’ve read in quite a while. I was immediately hooked, the writing style was very nice to read. I like getting into Aprils headspace- she had a feeling and she was right! Will definitely be thinking about this for a while.

Raised by a Serial Killer: Discovering the Truth About My Father by April Balascio is an intense and emotional read. The author shares her shocking experience of uncovering her father’s dark secret as a serial killer, which is a haunting journey filled with trauma and disbelief. The book goes into unsettling details that are hard to process, making it a deeply upsetting to read. It’s impossible to imagine what April went through, and her resilience in facing such a horrifying truth makes this memoir even more impactful. The emotional weight makes this a difficult read, but it’s an important account of trauma, resilience, and coming to terms with an unthinkable truth.

Thank you to the publisher Gallery Books
for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley

Wow, what a book. Kudos to the author, April Balascio, for coming forward and tipping police off to the fact that she suspected her father of being a murderer. The book was heartbreaking - with a mentally and physically abusive father and a mother who didn't seem present (combined with being fearful of her husband) I'm surprised the author and her siblings don't have more mental scars. That's not to downplay the effect their father's actions played on their mental health.

The biography was written well and in great detail. While hard to read at times, it was impossible to put down.

This was one heck of a memoir, the disturbing and shocking story of a man who was a loving father but also a brutally abusive one, both physically and emotionally to his family, all the while being a career criminal and killer. It's amazing that April and her siblings grew up to be respectable people and not psychopaths themselves. While I admit that I was mostly drawn to it because of the true crime aspect of the book, the part that works best, and is the majority of the book, is April's story. When it mainly turns true crime towards the end, it's not the strongest part of the book, but that's partially due to the many questions that were never fully answered.

"The untold story behind the hit true crime podcast The Clearing, this unforgettable memoir traces one daughter’s moving quest to understand her larger-than-life childhood as she searches for the truth about her father, the serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards."

Excellent read. This book is captivating and well written. April's story is heartbreaking and she is so brave to lay it all out for us. It is fascinating to see the "other side" of a person who has committed so much horror in the world. Unfortunately for April and her family, the sides of her father's personalities were all terrible. As someone who is interested in true crime and memoirs of all kinds, I particularly enjoyed this one. Seeing how the actions of one person ripple through a family and multiple communities is so interesting. I was rooting for April the whole time. I hope that she has found happiness and peace.

True crime isn't my usual genre, but I was drawn to Raised by a Serial Killer by April Balascio.

Wow. April was the daughter of Edward Wayne Edwards who admitted to killing 5 people, one of whom was someone who considered him a father figure.

April did a great job writing Raised by a Serial Killer; but you could also tell that it must have been very cleansing for her to put her experience in writing. It must have been incredibly difficult reliving and reconsidering who disappeared and how/why the family up and moved.

It was really scary how Edward Wayne Edwards manipulated and used women ... and how they believed his stories.

Between 4 & 5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley, April Balascio and publisher Gallery Books for approving my request to read the advance review copy of Raised by a Serial Killer in exchange for an honest review.

352 pages; Dec 3 2024 publication date.

April Balascio has written a memoir that reads like a novel but is a true crime tale because she and her family lived it. Her father, Edward Wayne Edwards, was a serial killer, as April found out as she grew suspicious of her father into her adulthood. She shares with the reader about frequent moves, her father disappearing in the evenings, and awful abuse by her father towards her mother and siblings. Edwards was placed on the FBI most wanted list as he robbed, escaped from jail, and terrorized people across the country as a teenager, introducing a life of crime which he kept secret to his family. April's sad accounts of living with neglect, abuse and family disfunction is heart wrenching, but April perseveres through her childhood to become a crusader to discover her father's criminal past. Extensive research and incredible resilience allow April to discover the truth about her family in this incredible memoir.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC to provide a review.

This was a wild story. There was so much sadness and heartbreak for April and her family that I felt at the hands of her abusive, psychotic father. It is sad to know anyone lives that way, with a father who is secretly a murderer and to have to reckon with that as an adult. The story was well told and had lots of details that added to its depth and emotion.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Raised by a Serial Killer by April Balascio.

It really must require so much to revisit your past and unearth such painful memories. That's the gift that Balascio gives us with her memoir, and it is ROUGH. Her upbringing reminded me a lot of Glass Castle. Constant upheaval, constant chaos. The big difference was that her charismatic father was a monster at home. He led the family with a huge temper and flying fists. But it wasn't until Balascio grew up that she started to suspect her father of even more heinous crimes, crimes that would have an influence of people years after his own death.

I MUST give a trigger warning. There is cruelty towards children, women, and animals in this book, please proceed with caution. This was hard to read, the author gives us years of detail, starting with the early life of her father. That's my only complaint of the book, it's too much, I could have lived with a more condensed version, especially given the content. However, it's a story that needs to be told, and heard.

An absolutely amazing story of an abused family, who had a serial murderer as a father. Almost impossible to put down.One of the best reads of 2024. This will definitely be a best seller!

This kept me up at night reading. April relived her traumatic childhood recounting events that she showcased in this book. I couldn't put this book down and to the very last page it just will be a read that sticks with me for life.

I received a free copy of, Raised by a Serial Killer, by April Balascio, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. April Balascio, is not so different then the rest of us, except she was raised by a serial killer! April father could be very charming, manipulative, abusive, and he was a cold blooded killer. Wow this book gets me, April is an amazingly strong women, she turned her own father in to police,I could not imagine being able to do that. This was an amazing read, wow.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
Wow, what a fascinating story! This is a must-read for true crime fans. Very well written and honest. Shocking, pretty much all the feels.
April is such an amazing person to write this book.
Highly recommend!

Excellent book! April did an amazing job reliving and recounting her traumatic life from childhood through adulthood. Parts were tough to read, and it is an amazing tale that she was brave enough to tell.

Definitely a novel work submerging yourself in entirely. It is a unique twist on a serial killer sort-of trope, with a psychological thriller aspect. This is a read that I finished in one day and was definitely work it!